COLUMBIA – Annie Fisher is known by some as the most famous chef to come out of Boone County.

However, local educator Verna Laboy says you likely haven’t heard Fisher’s story.

The culinary artist was born in 1867 to former slaves in Boone County, and left school after third grade to become a babysitter in order to financially help her family.

During the era of Jim Crow, Fisher refused to let her being Black stop her from reaching her dreams.

When she could put the babies to rest, she would spend time in the kitchen learning how to cook.

Fisher took those early culinary skills to start her own restaurant and catering business known as the Wayside Inn.

“If you had a party of any status in this community,” Laboy said, “you were going to pay Annie what she wanted to cater your event.” 

Later in life, Fisher became well-known for her beaten biscuits. Described as “creamy, fluffy, and flaky,” her biscuits were soon being mail-ordered to Wall Street and served to former President William Taft.

Fisher cooked her way into wealth at a time when there wasn’t much opportunity for Black women.

“It wasn’t about the biscuits, that was a ways to a mean,” Laboy said. “She became a real estate tycoon.”

The chef died in 1938, and despite owning 18 different properties, a majority of the memories of Fisher died with her.

That’s where Verna Laboy, or “Miss Verna” to a majority of the community, enters Annie’s story.

Laboy was asked to to create a vignette of Fisher’s life for her induction ceremony into the Boone County Historical Society’s Hall of Fame.

“They asked me if I was an actress,” Laboy said. “Being the drama queen I am, I jumped at it and said yes; not realizing what I had said yes to.”

There was one issue: Laboy had just moved from Peoria, Illinois, and the history of Fisher hadn’t been well recorded.

“They handed me a writing from a college student,” Laboy said. “That’s all I had.”

Laboy says that, seeking more information, she went out into the Black community and interviewed elders who knew Fisher during her life.

“That’s how I weaved the story,” Laboy said. “It’s all oral.”

Once she started learning about Fisher’s story, she couldn’t stop sharing it.

Laboy has taken it upon herself to recount Fisher’s life at schools and organizations across the community for 30 years now, such as the reenactment that took place at Columbia Public Library on Sunday.

“I love her story. It’s one of fortitude,” Laboy said. “She was a creator of two kinds of dough: the one that swells bank accounts and the one that rises in the oven.”

With the opening of the Shops at Sharp End last week, Laboy hopes that the stories of other Black Boone County entrepreneurs get told.

“What I hope is that there is some storyteller who can take the stories of Columbia’s Black historical figures and bring them to life,” Laboy said. “We built Boone County. We built Columbia. Those stories aren’t written anywhere.”

Fisher’s ‘Beaten’ Biscuit Recipe

Before Annie Fisher’s death, the chef released her recipe to mid-Missouri in a 1919 issue of the University Missourian, now known as the Columbia Missourian.

Ingredients:

• 1 quart of sifted flour
• 1-3 cups of pure lard
• 1-3 cups of butter
• 1 cup of sweetened water
• Salt to taste

“This is my recipe, but you won’t have any luck unless you put in plenty of elbow-grease,” Fisher said. “Go at it from the shoulder, that’s the thing that counts.”

Fisher told reporters for the 1919 article that she uses part lard and part butter to keep the biscuits light, but Laboy joked that the type of lard used by Fisher is likely not accessible to the average Missourian.

“You have to have the right lard,” Laboy said while in character as Fisher. “The best lard is from the bellies of baby pigs, but we won’t get into that.”

After the ingredients have been mixed thoroughly and the dough becomes about as stiff as pie crust, Fisher told the Missourian it must be worked for 15 minutes “to put life into it.”

“Don’t work them too long,” she continued in the article, “or you will work it out again.”